UNDP in Ukraine

UNDP to cooperate with State Employment Center to support employment generation for IDPs and in Eastern Ukraine

01 Aug 2014

The UnitedNations Development Programme and the of theMinistry ofSocial Policy ofUkraine signed a memorandumon cooperationin the field ofemployment,migration, re-training of citizens over 45 years oldand support to youthemploymentand entrepreneurship.

“Having decent job is not only a matter of money. It is also a matter of social inclusion, a person’s self-esteem and self-actualization, his or her status and active engagement in the life of the society. UNDP stands ready to help the efforts of the State Employment Service of Ukraine in creating jobs in the East, for internally displaced persons and in generating employment throughout Ukraine", underlined Inita Pauloviča, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Ukraine.

“We are grateful to UNDP for support and are looking forward to our cooperation to implement the innovative initiatives”, emphasized Yuri Kharchenko, Director of the State Employment Center.

Since re-gaining the independence in 1991, Ukraine has faced many challenges linked with employment and labour migration. The most vulnerable age groups are traditionally the young first-time job seekers and senior people, who were educated during the non-market economy and require advanced skills to compete in the labour market.

More than 50% participants of the national consultations recently held by theUNin Ukrainehave identifiedthe importance of "decent work" for the Post-2015 global development agenda.The experts also identifiedlowproductivity andpoorlevels ofpayas keychallenges of theUkrainianlabour market.

“To ensure positive changes it is important to implement best practices in public policy on employment and labour migration, especially engaging people of vulnerable categories. The memorandum aims at enhancing the state retraining system with a focus on citizens over 45 years old through re-evaluation of the current system of retraining vouchers and providing recommendations for improvements based on best international practices”, detailed Olena Ivanova, Project Manager of the UNDP Project “Support to the Social Sector Reform in Ukraine”.

“According to the statistics of the United Nations in Ukraine, more than 60% of young people aged 18-24 are willing to relocate to another city in Ukraine in pursuit of work. Unfortunately, not every young person succeeds in securing their first job within a satisfactory period of time. The memorandum provides for the introduction of innovative evidence-based youth employment models that can be further replicated throughout the country, notably in the areas of early career guidance, support to youth entrepreneurship and reducing the gap between education providers and employers, and other initiatives in facilitating provision of first workplace”, outlinedVera Profazi, Project Manager of the UNDP project “Strengthening National Capacity for Effective Youth Development and HIV/AIDS Response in Ukraine”.

Among the firststepsplanned for 2014will bethe introduction ofa nationalonline platform in career guidanceforhigh school students that will provide qualified andcomprehensivesupport for schoolchildren in choosing their future profession.Furthermore, workshops in IT technologies are plannedin the cities witha population of below 250,000 people. These workshops will be conducted jointly withemployers, thus ensuring immediate job placement for workshop graduates. The programmefor enhancing entrepreneurial skills of schoolchildren is under development based onthe Estonianmodel.